First Funeral for Slain Hunters Held

RICE LAKE, Wis. —  In a close-knit town where many families gather this time of year to hunt deer, residents are sharing their grief for six hunters shot and killed in Wisconsin’s north woods.

Orange ribbons tied around the lampposts along Main Street pay tribute to the hunters, as do bows adorning some business signs and car antennas in this northwestern Wisconsin town of about 8,500.

The deaths have saddened virtually the entire community, said Bob Stanonik, who was selling Christmas trees Friday on Main Street as up to 200 people mourned Mark Roidt, 28, at the first of the funerals.

“There’s nobody that’s not touched in town,” Stanonik said.

Authorities said the six were killed and two others wounded after a confrontation Sunday with a hunter who was trespassing on private land. Chai Soua Vang, 36, of St. Paul, Minn., remained in jail in lieu of $2.5 million bail pending formal charges.

At a snowy cemetery outside town Friday, small groups of people hugged after Roidt’s funeral service, which was closed to reporters. Jodi Anderson, a restaurant cook at Dobie’s BWR, where Roidt often ate, said the deaths had stunned the community.

“I’m very angry. This is so wrong,” she said.

Friends described Roidt as an outgoing man who loved hunting, motorcycling and other motor sports and was a jack-of-all-trades in carpentry and construction work.

Family friend Pat Malesa of Presque Isle said the victim’s mother, Karen Roidt, told mourners that at least her son died doing something he loved. Many in the area consider the deer hunting season a holiday; the regular season ends Sunday.

“The hunting week up here is called holy week,” Stanonik said. “Families get together, father, son, grandson.”

Orlen Eidahl of Rice Lake said he did not think the slayings would change that tradition. “We all are saddened, but things will go on,” he said.

Court records show that Vang, a Hmong immigrant, told authorities that the others surrounded him and used racial slurs before one fired a shot at him. One of the survivors gave a different account, saying Vang started shooting first.

Today, funeral services will be held for Robert Crotteau, 42, and his son Joey, 20, and for Allan Laski, 43; on Monday, there will be funerals for Dennis Drew, 55, and Jessica Willers, 27.

Two others wounded in the confrontation -- Willers’ father, Terry Willers, 47, and Lauren Hesebeck, 48 -- have been released from the hospital.